Donald Trump is trusted less than China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Pew global opinion survey

US President Donald Trump has shaken global faith in America’s leadership, an international survey found, as confidence in him lags behind other major world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.

The Pew Research Centre found 70 per cent of people surveyed across 25 countries this year said they lacked confidence in Trump, compared with 27 per cent who said they trusted the American president’s handling of international affairs.

The poll of more than 26,000 people found that opinions of Trump continued to fall among some of America’s closest allies and neighbours, with only 9 per cent of French citizens and 6 per cent of Mexicans expressing favourable views of him.

Still, respondents in almost every country said it would be better for the US to remain as the top global power, rather than China, which is seen as a rising power.

That included large majorities among China’s neighbours such as Japan (81 per cent) and the Philippines (77 per cent). The only places where pluralities favoured Chinese leadership were Tunisia (64 per cent), Argentina (35 per cent) and Russia (35 per cent).

Overall, about 50 per cent surveyed continued to hold favourable views of the US.